Close friends of Jamaican boxing great Mr Michael McCallum — who died on Saturday in Las Vegas, USA, at age 68 — describe him as a man who never lost his humility.

He was also among the finest professional boxers of his generation and unarguably the best produced by this country, in the footsteps of early legends such as Messrs Bunny Grant and Percy Hayles.

Mr McCallum became the first Jamaican to win a world boxing title when he defeated Mr Sean Mannion of Ireland to claim the World Boxing Association’s (WBA) junior middleweight crown at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1984.

He would later claim the WBA middleweight title and the World Boxing Council’s (WBC) light heavyweight title.

A master technician, he retired in the latter 90s with a professional record of 49 wins, five losses, and a draw. The losses came as his career approached its end.

Record keepers tell us that Mr McCallum — nicknamed The Body Snatcher for his tactic of weakening opponents by attacking the body before going to the head — was never stopped in any of his defeats.

Older Jamaicans still rejoice at his glorious triumphs over such highly rated opponents as American Mr Milton McCrory and the big-punching Mr Julian Jackson from the US Virgin Islands.

But for degree of difficulty, this newspaper believes his greatest achievement was his victory over Mr Donald Currie in 1987 in defence of the WBA junior middleweight title.

Rated by many experts as the best “pound for pound” boxer on the planet at the time, Mr Currie entered the fight as favourite. Slick, with fast hands, he was leading on the judge’s scorecards for the start of the fifth round. It was then that Mr McCallum produced what is still celebrated in boxing folklore as the “perfect” left hook. Hit flush on the jaw by a punch he apparently never saw, Mr Currie went down to be counted out.

A major loss for boxing was that handlers of such big-name middleweights as Messrs Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, and Tommy Hearnes, studiously avoided Mr McCallum.

As Mr Stephen “Bomber” Jones, president of the Jamaica Boxing Board, explained to regional television network SportsMax, boxing was big business and some managers and agents considered Mr McCallum too dangerous.

Said Mr Jones: “…Mike wasn’t a good business decision for many. He was just too good…”

We dare not forget that in, addition to his professional exploits, Mr McCallum was easily the best amateur boxer Jamaica has ever produced.

Tutored by the legendary Belizean-born trainer Mr Emelio Sanchez, the teenaged Mr McCallum took the silver medal in the welterweight class at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Santo Domingo in 1974.

He missed out on a medal at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, but won the gold medal at the CAC Games in Medellin, Colombia, in 1978.

He took the Commonwealth Games gold in Edmonton, Canada, in 1978, and Pan Am Games silver medal in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1979.

He went to the 1980 Moscow Olympics among the favourites for the gold medal in the welterweight class, only to be laid low by appendicitis mere days before the start of competition.

The records do not lie. With the passing of Mr McCallum, Jamaica has lost a flag-bearer of the highest order.